June 18, 2015

I’ve worked in space pretty much my whole life and the one thing I’ve never been able to get used to is the smell. Nobody ever wants to talk about it but it’s there, every station, every post, every time. Humans, even the modified ones like those creepy cat people, no offense, just stink.

All that sweat and oil that oozes from our skin. It’s in our hair, drips off our fingers, it’s everywhere and we put it on everything. We’re disgusting. It’s not so bad if you’re in the open or there’s decent gravity but that NEVER happens in space. Decent air currents can clear things a little but re-circulation systems are pretty much guaranteed to create a perfect stink storm. Add to that the vagaries of spin gravity and you get a constant soup of repugnant stench that collects in odd corners so it can ambush you when you least expect it.

I’ve been told that most people just get used to it and don’t even notice it anymore. Nose blinders or some other crap explanation. Not me though, I never “get used to it” and I probably never will. Hooray for bad wiring.

What’s this got to do with the Raven’s Hope tragedy?

Well it matters because I work with bots instead of people, they don’t stink as much. As a result I know bots really well and I’ve grown fond of em. Look, I’ll admit it, I like bots more than people. I don’t like them so much that I deserve that judgey look I get when I’m walking the station though so get your mind out of the recycler.

Look, it’s not like I actually have sex with the droids okay? I’m not sick like that! I’m not like the others that frequent the Shaft and Sprocket. Those people have serious mental problems.

They don’t understand the droids like I do. They have feelings! Emotions so that when you abuse them they can really be hurt. I’m no monster...I just get lonely. I’m only human.

What?

Look, I know that their affection is a program, that the droids aren’t even ‘sposed to be fully aware. But let me ask you something? Why do you assume that the your emotions, even your sense of self, is anything more than programming hammered into place by evolution? How is that more valid than a response algorithm and observational software? How is either one more true?

In my heart I know the droids feel things and that’s a good enough reason to not treat them like shit. Even the bots programmed to “like” that kind of thing should be treated better. Those models give me the creeps anyway.